Boutari – Grand Reserve Naoussa 2013

The Grande Reserve Naoussa is not an everyday wine for Boutari. It ranks among the house's premium bottlings, well above the basic Naoussa Boutari. In August 2013, under the title "The New Naoussa," Wine & Spirits called this line the flagship of the day and a style-defining wine for the appellation. Boutari itself was founded in Naoussa in 1879 by Ioannis Boutaris. In the glass we have 100 percent Xinomavro from the PDO Naoussa and 12.5 percent alcohol. The Grande Reserve designation signals the long maturation, in the case of the 2013 some 24 months in French oak and another 24 months in bottle, four years in total. That corresponds to today's requirement for this designation. Since 1984, Dr. Yannis Voyatzis has shaped the house's oenology; he studied chemistry in Thessaloniki and oenology in Bordeaux. I had the 2013 in my glass in October 2026, around thirteen years after the harvest. It was one of four Boutari wines in a joint tasting that also included the Cava 2020, the Grande Reserve 1993 and a Cava from 1976.

As a vintage, 2013 was strong for red Naoussa, 8 out of 10 and thus well above the long-term Greek median of 6.5. Expectations were correspondingly high. At the end of 2020, Wine & Spirits awarded the 2013 94 points and described it as concentrated and tense, with ripe, barely astringent tannins. Robert K. Stephen noted 85 points on his blog Set the Bar in November 2019. At the time he found the wine too tannin-driven and marketed too early, and advised drinking it from 2024 at the earliest. At the Balkans International Wine Competition 2026, the wine took gold with 89 points. So at thirteen years of age, this 2013 should have been within its drinking window.

My own finding was different. On the nose quite a lot of toffee, along with some fig. On the palate there is a decent tannin, which does indeed recede somewhat behind the acidity. A lovely tomato note on the attack, but then a lot of tobacco and little fruit. This is a wine that actually already seems to be past its peak. In terms of color, as the side-by-side with the 1993 showed, it was the denser of the two.

In points, this comparison within the tasting came out in favor of the older wine. The twenty-years-older Grande Reserve 1993 earned 87 points from me, showed itself astonishingly fresh on the nose and offered a grippy tannin that had lost nothing. Its structure convinced me just as much as that of the 2013. The Cava 2020, too, at 86 points, came in a point above the Grande Reserve, and at a lower price at that. Just how fresh a Xinomavro of this category and age can seem was shown to me by the Tsantali Rapsani Grand Reserve 2012 from the PDO Rapsani, which I noted in 2024 at around twelve years of age with 91 points. Toffee, incidentally, was something I also found in the Boutari Nemea 1998, which I noted in 2024 with "a great deal of toffee" on the nose at 90 points.

I had the Grande Reserve 1987 in my glass in 2024 at the Xinomavro masterclass, with cork problems and 84 points. The 2013 costs around 20 euros in Greece. For me this is only 85 points, and that is too little for a wine of this kind. Nor will it win anyone over to Xinomavro.